"Commander, sir. Reporting as ordered." Sunoue saluted. Bate returned it and took a drink from his coffee tube before starting.

"Okay, I'll make this quick as I can. That's Runnels, she's the second in command." At the mention of her name, Runnels absently gave a quick wave of her hand but didn't turn around. "All I need to know right now is how much you've been in a Marasai and if you've seen any combat. We didn't get your complete file." Bate grumbled. They hadn't been short handed, it was if HQ simply had a pilot that needed to go somewhere, and the Kalinin was picked at random, and so everything was done so far normal things like the man's file hadn't even been sent over.

"All I need to know right now is how much you've been in a Marasai and if you've seen any combat. We didn't get your complete file." Bate grumbled at Arc, backing up some of the ensign's earlier thoughts.

"Sir, I've never flown a Marasai before, though I have logged a fair amount of simulator hours for it. As for combat, I fought a few skirmishes against Karaba forces on Earth with a Hizack." Arc replied, recalling his time on Earth. That had been over a month ago, but it felt like it had been ages.

Out of no where Jason found himself pinned against a wall, it took him completely by surprise that he barely got a breath in. At first he thought it was Te'Litha on one of his many frenzied episodes until he got a good look and saw a wild-eyed Ritter.Surprised, Jason tried to push Ritter's arm to get some air but froze instantly when he felt cold metal underneath his chin. He never spoke to Ritter before but from what he heard about the man was that he was a calm, cold-hearted character with a temper but something was definitely way off with this man. Jason's eyes searched around for anything that he could use cursing himself for not carrying his own side-arm, who knew you needed protection on your own ship..go figure. But when he heard the hammer cock, his eyes widened with fear as an image of Grace raced through his mind.

no, no not like this. I can't die now..I need to get her out of this mess..I CAN'T DIE NOW

"You keep your mouth shut and listen to me," Ritter hissed "I said listen, I want you to stay OUT of the WAY, do you hear me? I don't care if you take your orders from Friday or Te'Litha or the devil himself - if you come close to me when we're out there I will kill you,".

When Ritter released his hold, Jason quickly clutched his throat in relief that once again he could freely take in the wonderful recycled stale air. Upon hearing Ritter refer to Grace it made him boil with anger. Clenching his free hand and ignoring his instinct to flee, he made a stand by barking his resolve.

"You leave her out of this!! *cough* I don't care what you do to that lunatic! *cough* I had nothing to do with what he did to your father!"

"Sir, I've never flown a Marasai before, though I have logged a fair amount of simulator hours for it. As for combat, I fought a few skirmishes against Karaba forces on Earth with a Hizack."

Bate merely nodded to Sunoue's statement. F***ing great... He thought to himself, letting a small frown creep to his face. Karaba wasn't that large, Bate knew, and had generally older equipment outside of a handful of fairly well known units. It all added up, in Alphas view, to be fairly unimpressive. He ought to be better than those other idiots, but that isn't saying much, Bate thought, trying, but largely failing, to find a good side of the situation.

He sighed. "Well, you better study up on the manuals, Ensign. We don't have a proper simulator on this ship, and we don't have time to keep resetting the cockpits over to them either. We do that when we can, and do some real flying, but we're on alert now and will be for a while, so all that will have to wait. Get your stuff put away and then get down to your suit. The rest of the team is in their machines, so you'll finish the alert shift with them." Bate paused before adding. "Any quick questions?"

With plenty of time to spare before his cryptic deadline, Wolf entered the hangar in his normal suit, carrying his helmet. He had ignored Jason's angry response to his threat and gone about his business, confident his message had gotten across. He floated over to where Sven was finishing up his examination of Ritter's Barzam and came to a stop on the boarding platform. Glancing over his suit he put on his helmet and fastened it to the neck of his normal suit, then opened up the visor. "Good work," he called out to Sven, "I wasn't sidetracked as long I thought I might be,". He tugged on his gloves to make sure they were securely in place. "Let's make sure your mobile suit is still as it should be and then we can check Daren's if he's not back when we're finished," he suggested, dropping down from the platform to Haksson's level. As he moved over to the feet of Sven's Barzam, he noted, "He's taking too long. I didn't tell him to go and find her, just to check her room. Te'Litha had better not be screwing with me again,".

From his seat in his Griffin's open hatch, Dolk ignored the conversation between Stukov and Pan as he watched Wolf. He couldn't really hear anything in particular between his music and the hangar noise, but he had gotten very good at reading lips because of his former job and his musical hobby. Unfortunately, Ritter and Haksson both had their backs to him. Nevertheless, he watched as they began to inspect their MS just to see if anything of note would happen. Any little bit of info he could get before they were back in combat might be the difference between life and death - not that he was concerned about either man's ability to put up a fight against him or the Griffin. He'd take them both on at the same time if he had to.

Trent was about to leave Nick to think about his request when Daren entered sick bay. Trent looked at him from beneath the brim of his cap without turning his head and said to Nick, "Actually Master Chief Nwosu is the one that told me about what happened in the hallway. You'd think he'd keep it under wraps and let Wolf have a crack at you, but the way things are now who knows what anyone's train of thought is like any more,". Surprisingly, Daren scanned the room and made a beeline for them. "Sir," he nodded to Trent, who simply returned the nod with slightly raised eyebrows. He turned to Nick and his gaze hardened a bit. "Lt. Te'Litha, if you won't return the paper you took from my person when I was unconscious..." he said, resting his hand on his belt in a familiar menacing way, "...I suggest you destroy it. It would be the best thing for both of us,". The captain's reaction to Daren's approach turned into a lopsided frown and he simply said, "I don't want or need to hear this," as he began to move away from the pair. "Nick, think about what I said," he called out as he headed for the exit.

"Damn it...". The lead Eye-Zack pilot grumbled a few other choice words under his breath as he changed his suit's focus from the Axis ships to the slowly approaching Gaza-Cs, bringing the inset flight path prediction up as the monitor's main display. The dashed line crept closer to his position, indicating they would come uncomfortably close to his hiding spot during the patrol. The monoeye on the radome whirred into a new position to keep an eye on his closest wingman. It blinked a signal in morse to get his attention, and he waited a few moments to get a response. Once he knew his second was paying attention, he sent another message using the blinking monoeye.

"HOLD POSITION. DO NOT FALL BACK UNTIL SIGNAL FLARE. CONTINUE MISSION."

When his XO confirmed the order, he rotated the radome eye back into a surveillance view. Nervously tapping his fingers on the idle keypad at his right, he considered taking the 90mm bullpup SMG from the rear skirt armor to have it at the ready. As he watched the Gaza's movement slow when they hit a field of debris, he decided to avoid unnecessary movement. Besides, the mission was supposed to last another five or six hours, and the older model 90mm was meant to be a harassment weapon at best to cover their escape, even with newer armor piercing rounds.

"No, sir. I'll get squared away and to my mobile suit immediately." Arc replied with a nod before saluting once more and dismissing himself to the lockers to get changed. He performed the outfit swap as fast and smooth as possible and, once he was set, left the area with a 'Sir' and 'Ma'am' to the superior officers.

Floating down the hallway towards the hangar, Arc looked at the Marasai manual he had been sure to procure earlier. He gave the book a spin in his hand, sighing. At least he would have something to do while they were waiting on alert.

Upon reaching the hangar, Arc went straight for his mobile suit and took his place in the cockpit, lest he incur the wrath of some other officer for slacking off. Placing his helmet in his lap, he opened the manual and started skimming through it.

Jason bolted inside ignoring a sleeping Faraday as he hurried straight to his locker. The incident with Ritter added more worries to a long list that was growing. On top of locating the nearest Federation fleet he also had to worry about Grace's safety while on board the Kirov.Flinging open the locker, Jason pulled out a dusty holster with a sidearm. He felt that if he and Grace were going to get out of this mess then he would have to revert back to his earlier self when hatred kept him alive.Seething over Ritter's threat to Grace he clipped the holster to his belt and he slammed the locker close.

"How are our eyes and ears doing?" Trent asked hoarsely as he glided back onto the bridge. "No contact yet. That's probably for the best," Mortimer answered flatly from his helm station. "Hn," Andrewson responded as he hauled himself up into his seat, "If they come back now it's because someone is shooting at them,". Kellman nodded, "Exactly, sir. We're still maintaining radio silence,". The captain settled into his chair and surveyed the men working at their stations and the view of space ahead of them, Gryps 2 looming as the largest visible object. "Any messages from the fleet?" he inquired, leaning back against the rigid seat and closing his eyes to listen to the subtle background noise of the ship. "No, sir. Actually it's been very quiet since we started moving to our current position..." Mortimer answered, turning to look at Trent.

"Sir!" Kellman said, causing Trent's eyes to snap open. The usually impassive helmsman had left his post and was standing next to the command chair. "Captain, your nose is bleeding..." he said, keeping his voice down as he reached into his jacket for a handkerchief. "What? No it's not..." Trent said, dabbing at his face. He pulled his hand away to find blood smeared on his fingers. He took the cloth from Mortimer and pressed it to his nose to keep the blood from getting on his uniform or floating free and getting into the electronic equipment. "Sir, you should go to sick bay. Now," the chief ordered, still keeping his voice low, "You've been a mess for days,".

The Eye-Zack team leader blew out a breath he had been nervously holding as he watched the Gaza-Cs' course change again. The projected line of their flight patch clicked farther away from his position, indicating they shouldn't come close enough to spot him. Data and stolen information was still trickling in from the Axis ships and mobile suits, and he hoped the remaining hours of his sortie would be as quiet as things had been before that Gaza team had launched. He had the authority to stay longer than instructed to gather data on the AEUG if they arrived at the projected time, and he didn't see any reason not to if things remained calm this far out. Besides, once the Minovsky density started to skyrocket he would be able to operate a little more openly instead of hunkering down behind debris.

[Delta Team Ready Room, which used to be Gamma Teams ready room. Explaining why Leandro was confused earlier]

Leandro rubbed his chin and answered Grants question. "Well we'll have to worry about forces from Axis and forces from AEUG." He shrugged, trying to pass it off like a more confident pilot like Stukov would. "We stick together and stick with the pre planned maneuvers we'll perform well. You hear that Grace."

[Hangar]

Heyden let out a roar of a laugh after hearing Stukov's response and slapped him on the shoulder with enough force to flip a bus. "You're one cold sonofabitch Stu!" Heyden kicked off the ground and started towards his Blue and white Griffin, he had a bit of work he had to do for something.

When Jason slammed the locker shut the sound caused Aaron to bolt out of the chair he was on and yell.

Looking around quickly he saw that another pilot was now in the room. His heart was regaining its regular rhythm as he realized he didn't have to worry. But maybe this was what the MCPO in the hallway had warned him about.

"Hi, I just got transfered here," he said slightly embarrassed that he'd been caught sleeping, "I'm Lt. JG Aaron Faraday."

_________________"Kamille, if it wasn't for you...." Jerid's last words

-The Herakles--Pilot Quarters-Criss had spent much of the intervening time alone in her room, floating about and only leaving to eat and to simulate in her unit's cockpit. She'd long resigned herself to the fact that she had probably bitten off much more than she could chew with the titans. Although she still hated the idea of an Anti-Earth Union Group, she somehow felt that she'd fell into a den of lions.

Still, she wasn't going to let it get to her. She had a job to do, and she had a reputation to defend. That didn't mean she couldn't be scared.

"Nick, think about what I said,"Nick had thought a bit about Trent's (and Daren's) request and just before exited sickbay to go back to the bridge Nick answered him. "Black has nothing to do with my declaration of war, it's a personal kinda thing," he stated not caring that Daren heard, "but, since it's personal I can wait, out of respect for you. I won't take any overt action against Wolf if something comes up this time. But, if he tries something, I will defend myself, so if you want to keep the suits intact, I suggest you have this same little talk with him." He rounded on Daren, working on a hunch, "I suggest you do the same, and if Wolf doesn't try to blow me up, then consider those paper's destroyed. If not.. Well, then I just might tell him where I got those paper's from, things tend to slip out in the heat of battle" he said icily.

Delta Team Ready Room

Ltjg. Kelborn

"....You hear that Grace.""What? Oh, Yeah," she responded stupidly having just gotten her head out of the clouds.

_________________IAN: (Shaking fist up at sky in a storm of GN particles) Science does not WORK this way, Setsuna!!!